5 Things Managers and Leaders Must Do

Communication, forward thinking, prioritization, and other skills must be learned and applied in the workplace by managers if we can expect to improve employee engagement. Employees need a manager who is willing to provide an “open” communication platform that includes feedback in a timely fashion, candid discussion on performance and appropriate behavior, a willingness to clarify expectations and use metrics to measure results, and to include the employee in the awareness and planning stages for the company’s vision.
Here are 5 Tips that we believe makes a difference in your business if put into practice: 

Resolution - Increase Employee Engagement - Video 1 Second of Your Work Day

(From Fastcompany.com) Two days after launching a Kickstarter project, Cesar Kuriyama found himself bombarded with questions and requests. It was tempting to work around the clock. But at 6 p.m., he got up from his desk and went for a bike ride. Because he needed to find a moment worth recording.

Kuriyama is fundraising for an app that makes it easy for anyone to record one second each day of their lives. It’s based on an experiment he has been conducting on his own life since February 20, 2011, when after saving for years, he quit his job to take a year off from work. To chronicle what he assumed would be the most adventurous year of his life; he started selecting one second of video footage from each day. His plan was to compile the moments into a six-minute memento. Soon, however, he found the project was doing more than documenting his life--it was changing the decisions he made about how to spend time.

Click Image Above to Watch His Video

“[The project has] made me realize I need to do one interesting thing to make today count,” he says. “It’s been an incalculably positive influence on my life. The reason that I’ve really decided to stop everything and try to build this thing is that I genuinely think it can have that same influence for others." Here’s how he believes chronicling a life in one-second chunks can change it.

Business Resolution  –  Record 1 second every  work day for a month – the good and the bad.

 How can this change the way you work and the way that your employees work? It makes you very conscious of your actions. Were they good? Were they bad? Were there any employee successes? Were you motivating? Were you prepared?

Use this as an experiment in your company. Try it for a month and get the entire company involved, no matter your size company 1 – 1,000, video one second of every day. Find out if there is anyone that can stitch them together in your company, since the app isn’t created yet.

After the month is over, make sure that you have a special meeting where everyone can watch them, especially if multiple people are recording these 1 second tidbits. In the meeting, get feedback if it was successful. If it was successful, continue it and see how people’s attitudes change when they realize they need to record 1 second every day. This will be sure to increase employee engagement!

Resolution - Increase Employee Productivity - The Largest Risk in Your Business

In a recent Taleo Research Study, they reported that the largest risk to their company’s bottom line and brand is low employee engagement and productivity. Most companies are asking people to do more with less because companies can no longer afford to have suboptimal performance from any employee.

No one argues the fact that there is a direct correlation between engagement and productivity. The real question is, how do we sustain high levels of productivity on the job while keeping people engaged?

The first step, in an ongoing sustainability process, is to teach the employee to become goal-oriented. All of our Leadership and Management Development Courses are goal-oriented and we teach people how to get results. Performance and productivity enhancement is defined as our desired outcome.

The second step is to align the business goals to talent goals. Executive level management must provide the vision and articulate the strategy. Mid level management must provide a work environment that allows the strategy to be driven while presenting a responsibility, accountability and self-empowerment culture to support this highly engaged workforce.

Our Making of an Effective Manager helps mid-level management get executives and employees on the same boat while keeping it on the straight and narrow path to success. Middle Management is what makes things happen. If they are not trained, they will not understand the value of setting goals, and nor will they know how to get employees to realize they are part of that goal.

It is documented that 85% find linking talent management to corporate goals challenging. The reason for the high percentage is that most people are not goal-oriented and until they learn the competency that will help them get the desired results, they will struggle.

The value from engagement and alignment can pay big dividends for your company’s future. As an owner and/or HR professional, it is your job to drive the process and select the right tools to achieve the desired results.

Call Innovative Leadership now to help you define your plan of action for engagement and alignment at 609.390.2830. Or click here to learn more about The Making of an Effective Manager.